IT Recovery Strategy Development

Prepare

Prior to developing IT and comms recovery strategies it is important to consider the actual or potential budget availability to implement solutions. This will help to ensure that the options considered are appropriate and realistic. It is better to put in place a solution that improves upon the current position and moves towards satisfying the business requirements rather than presenting something to management that will not approved.

The ideal tool to aid facilitation of discussions to develop IT and comms recovery strategies is a Resource Recovery Requirements Table that clearly defines the “required” recovery time objective (RTO) for each IT and comms resource. Ideally this should also include a column stating the current “achievable” recovery time as this will clearly show the gaps that need to be focused upon.

Develop strategies

Teed consultants will provide examples during the discussions of what has or has not worked with other organisations previously. It is important to keep discussions focused and the consultant will ensure that each issue is discussed at an appropriate level of detail to agree feasibility of a strategy – the lower level detail can be left until the plan development and implementation stages of the project. Teed consultants have a good appreciation of the third party options available and will provide wholly independent advice in this respect. However, the focus upon achieving recovery using internal resources will be given first priority before considering external options.

Present findings

Teed consultants will collate the relevant information within an IT DR Recommendations Report that clearly defines the recovery strategy options that are appropriate and why. Usually there will be an obvious option that stands out as appropriate as it ensures the IT and comms requirements of the business are satisfied without spending more time and money on implementing solutions than is necessary. However, we are usually asked to provide several options to allow management to make the decision to ensure that the level of investment is balanced against any residual business risk